Notes on a Super Bowl Caps Game

* There were, at minimum, several dozen people at today's Super Bowl hockey matinee mixing Caps gear with Pittsburgh Steelers attire. Imagine, say, a Steelers Super Bowl hat on top of a red Caps sweater. Wait, what? I mean, no. I don't see how that's even close to acceptable.

* Like, the shoes pictured above? Those are the shoes you wear to the VC on Super Bowl Sunday. That's the spirit. And yes, they're worn by two different men, as indicated by the different pants, and only one is adorned with the Pens special effects, but the basic model is the same.

* In keeping with the season, a Caps PR staffer suggested to Bruce Boudreau after the game that Mike Green's rink-long feed to Alexander Semin was, in football terms, something of a Hail Mary.

"It's not really a Hail Mary," mused Boudreau, who is actually a fan of the pointy-ball game. "A Hail Mary, there's somebody in the area, you know, and you're panicking. That's a Hail Mary pass."

I called it a go route, while Caps PR guy Paul Rovnak went with down and out.. Either way, Boudreau loved it.

"I mean, that was a sick pass by Mike Green," he said. "To have the wherewithal to see him going, figure out the situation and just flip it over everybody and let him go in?"

* The Big Screen ran a game-long poll on which team Caps fans were favoring this evening. For much of the afternoon, "I don't care, the Caps are leading the Southeast" was comfortably in first, followed by the Steelers and then the Cardinals, who trailed with something like 10 percent.

No, no, no, no, no. If you're a Caps fan, you hate Pittsburgh; ergo, you hate the Steelers;ergo, you cheer for the Cardinals tonight, even if you care not a whit about football. And I'm not just saying that because I took the points.

* See? That's more good Super Bowl attire. Not sure if that's the same jersey worn here, though the shoulders certainly seem a different width. And one more thing: this kid's father just ordered a 71 "Malkin Sucks" red Caps jersey.

* More importantly, it would seem the coach has now followed the team leader's lead in using the adjective "sick?" I asked whether this was true.

"I think it's a generational thing," Boudreau said. "Every now and again, I come back to my youth."

* Remember how Alex Ovechkin said he was "sleepy" during Saturday's matinee? It was at least the second time he's used that word in recent days, bringing "sleepy" to the verge of "sick" status. Anyhow, with five goals in two straight afternoon starts, Ovechkin was asked how the sleepy meter rated today.

"I go to bed a little bit early, like 8, and wake up again 6:30 and go back again to sleep," he said, "so I kind of feel pretty good today."

And he was also asked whether he now likes afternoon games.

"No, he said. "At that time, actually, I'm sleeping" on a normal game day, he later explained.

One media member pointed out that you couldn't really tell that he didn't like the time.

"It just happens some times, you know?" Ovechkin said.

Others were skeptical.

"I mean, I don't know how many points he's got in two games, so I don't see how he could hate 'em," Green said of afternoon games. "He's lazy, though, away from the rink, so that's why."

"You can argue it out with those two," Boudreau said. "I'm not touching it."

In the longest grocery store line ever, the person behind me asked who I was rooting for. I explained that since Steeler fans were Penguin fans, I was rooting for Arizona. He looked a little confused. But the folks behind him understood completely.

Any Person from Pittsburgh, who feels they can root for the Caps unless they play the Penguins because they live here now is a disgrace.

I dont have any issues with a Western conference fan like Detroit rocking the red, but Pittsburgh, Philly, Rangers? Please explain how you can root for your rival? Sounds like a Mets/Yankees fan to me.

Just odd. I never understood how one can root for different teams from other cities. If you live in a city that covers all the major sports, you support your cities teams and any and all rivalries are supposed to cut across sport and other lines, from your Alpha sports to the others, for example I want the entire city of Dallas burned to the ground, because the redskins are my no-1 team of all sports. If someone lives in Fredrick MD then I could see them crossing lines but its still of poor taste and they should be slapped and mocked openly.

My first hockey game was in October 2008, the Caps versus the Canucks. Sat in the row behind the Caps bench. Watched in awe as they played and won that game. This was on my usual trips to No-Va, to visit my cousins. I live in Los Angeles and while I have my choice to try to get into the Ducks or the Kings, it hardly seems like a worthwhile effort. It's kinda' like a baby bonding with his parents. You can't stick the baby with another set of parents the next week. They'll know the difference. I remember watching the Caps versus the Ducks here in Anaheim and the thing I was most excited about was seeing the Caps. Not the Ducks, even if they are one of my home teams. I would imagine you guys could make an exception. I have family that lives in the No-Va/DC/Maryland area. Quite a number of them. I head East at least once a year for two weeks. For the record, I'm heading there Wednesday and watching and rooting for the Caps to beat the Kings on Thursday and the Panthers on Saturday, in the row just behind the players. I think I can rock the Red with the best of 'em, even if I am from the Left Coast. =)